


Anything For You

by Angliya



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: 1930s, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 02:31:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1588376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angliya/pseuds/Angliya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet prompt: "Bucky doing Not Legal Things to make sure Steve has food in the 30's."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything For You

"How’re you supposed t’grow if you don’t eat your veggies?" Bucky asks, his head ducked down into the open and empty abyss of Steve’s refrigerator. "Ain’t going anywhere this way, bud. Listen, I know money’s tight and all but you gotta eat somethin’ and I have some extra money and we can go to that place downtown. Pick up some milk, broccoli, maybe a magazine or two. Make a night of it."  
  
"Nah, you don’t gotta go through all of that. Check comes in tomorrow first thing in the morning, don’t worry about it." Steve assures, perched atop of the counter and Bucky notices the way he sighs just in the corner of his vision. That wasn’t ever assuring when there was unopened mail on the table and those eyes that could give away just about  _everything._  
  
Bucky slips out from the fridge and lets the door shut behind him, crossing his arms and leaning against it. he looks at Steve who looks right back at him, still with those blue, blue eyes. “Tomorrow huh? Well what about today, what’s the plan for today? You can’t just eat that onion on the table it’s been there for a week. Y’know your ma wouldn’t forgive me for letting you live like this. _I_  wouldn’t forgive me for letting you live like this.”  
  
Steve opens his mouth to speak but refrains, sliding down to his feet and pursing his lips. The drip of the faucet fills the silence and Bucky’d like him to just smile and let it be but there was always a _but._  ”I can take care of myself, buck.” he reminds and they know this more than anything else. “You don’t gotta do a thing and everything’ll work out just like it always does. We’ll save those magazines for tomorrow, huh? I’ll find the good record and even try to draw the magnolia again.”  
  
"Or  _tonight_  we can have dinner for two all romantic-like by the window and maybe watch traffic until we fall asleep. Call it a date i’ll wear a suit and tie, you can wear whatever you want.” Bucky’s hands find their ways into his pockets and he meanders one step, two step. Whatever he could to get Steve to agree? of course, he wasn’t gonna let the punk starve. An excuse for a date? _yeah, yeah_. “Whattaya say?”  
  
"Bucky-"  
  
"A _date_ , Steve.”  
  
Steve’s face contorts but his shoulders are slack right at his side and Bucky looks back at him flashing his teeth. “So a suit and tie, huh?” he says slowly like there’s no point in arguing anymore over what was inevitably going to show up dog-eyed at his doorstep. “Do you even own one’a those?”  
  
"Hey! I clean up nice just you wait." Bucky walks to the door with a whistle and a stroll, pointing a finger back at him as he opens it and only gets half of himself out before he goes. "Tonight, though. 6:30 right on the dot."  
  
 **—-**  
  
If there’s anything that Bucky knows for a fact right this moment is that his pockets are empty and his wallet has been hollow since three days ago and his last quarter had gone to the juke box. but he’s got a date with Steve Rogers tonight and there’s gonna be dinner on the table with scraps to last them at least two days and nothing less. Of course he couldn’t afford it but when it came to not affording things they were masters at a game that only seemed to want to step on them time and time again. Brooklyn had a way of greeting its chalk-stained kids with concrete and the occasional chance to fly out of the coop but sometimes it was best to stay put, though they had thought about leaving somehow someday. But just not yet.  
  
Bucky walks down the street with intention, walking faster than the sparse line of commute traffic and in between tourists who couldn’t figure out where the best place for a look at the scenery was at. Nothin’ exciting about a bunch of tall buildings and brick faces but the country folk found it fascinating.  
  
His first stop is Gale’s and the grocery store itself had been opened longer than Bucky and Steve could both remember. neither of um could afford a lollipop from the counter but Bucky always found a silver nickle in his pocket even though he had just snatched them up into his pocket when everyone’s back was turned. Today wasn't any different and a couple cans of pork n’ beans weren't going to be missed from the shelf. The place hadn’t changed over the course of 30 years only there was more bread on the shelf and the doorbell rang more often which he supposed was good for business.  
  
"Well if it isn’t James Barnes." The man announces from over the store counter, eyes wide behind his thick glasses. "Without Steven, I see, isn’t that a sight. The boy isn’t ill, is he? Heaven forbid the Lord take another Rogers."  
  
"Stevie’s back at home fixin’ the sink." Bucky replies nonchalantly, nodding nonetheless in the memory of Steve’s mother and most certainly agreeing that the world couldn’t afford to lose another Rogers. "But he’s a tough kid, gonna make the world a better place n’all that. He’s prolly gonna be in history books by the time everything’s said and done."  
  
The man smiles in such a way that reminds Bucky of one of those old comic-strip turtles with over accentuated features and he nearly has to stifle a laugh. “He comes down here sometimes still, though he hasn’t gotten much taller since I first met ‘im.”  
  
Bucky takes his steps carefully so to break away from the conversation and devoid further attention to himself, nodding. “Yeah well he’s still got time for that growth spurt. Just give it a couple more months and we’ll be wondering what the hell happened.”  

He takes the opportunity to swing around and drift into an aisle before a reply can be made, leaving the shopkeeper to carry on his way opening and shutting the cash register. He checks the time on his crack-faced watch to assure he had at least three whole hours to his lonesome and plenty of time to get back to the apartment and throw everything together. If Steve thought for a moment that he was kidding about the whole candle-light dinner thing he was in for a surprise.  
  
It only takes ten minutes of walking in between each and every aisle time and time again until he has almost everything he needs stuffed into his pockets. For all he knows he’s not the only one with pockets full of whatever they needed to get by and who could blame him for not having 18 cents a pound for some potatoes? Fuck, he’d once managed to fit a dozen eggs into his trousers and got  _most_  of them back home without a crack.  
  
He walks out of Gale’s with three cans of beans and five potatoes, waving at the shopkeeper as he goes.  
  
 **—-**  
  
His suit’s moth bitten at the sleeves but Bucky thinks it could be worse and only continues to properly adjust his tie in the mirror. It’s a little too short at the waist and he takes note on the fact that if he slouches his shoulders just enough it looks almost perfect. Of course he’s worn the thing a time or two since it was supposed to fit proper and it never quite suited him even though he had been told by a lady or two that he looked right dashing. Steve thought he looked ridiculous and bucky agreed, ridiculous with a handsome face.  
  
There’s a knock on the door and Bucky wheels around on his heels, shit he hadn’t even bothered to put on shoes.  
  
"You’re actually dressing up in there?" Steve calls from outside the door, laughing under his breath. "You really don’t have to I’m not even dressing up—"  
  
"I promised i would! don’t back down on promises, y’know that. " Bucky shouts back, walking to the door in two strides and cracking it just a hair to peek at steve looking at him with a roll of his eyes. "So I’m doing it for you."  
  
He opens the door all the way and Steve looks at him with a break of a smile. He wasn't kidding about not being dressed up in anything special. He wearing his hand-me-downs that hang off of his sharp shoulders and his hair is tousled like he’s slept on the sofa and not given himself another look since. Bucky thinks it’s perfect and he didn’t want anything else for the world.  
  
"Have a hot date?" Steve remarks.  
  
"I’m lookin’ at him."  
  
The beans sit bubbling on the stove and the potatoes are smoking but done on the plate already on the table. It’s not gourmet and it was definitely nothing he was exactly proud of stealing but they were eating and that’s all that mattered, right?  
  
"So...music and traffic watching right after this, right?" Steve grabs bowls and the pot from the stove and brings them with him to his chair on the left-side.His face is just in the slightest red and it shows in the tips of his ears like the comment hadn't left him yet.   
  
Bucky grins, lighting the two deformed candles that they had leftover from Christmas and putting them right in the center of the table. He kicks his chair back and takes a seat across from him, paying mind to the tail of his tuxedo and the threat of a button popping from his chest as he sits down. “'Course.”  
  
Steve smiles back at him and Bucky breathes easy.  
 _  
It was a date._


End file.
